Commissioner-General of the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) Khurshid Sattaur has said that the agency will start occupying the Clico building on Camp Street within a month’s time, although the rental terms are still being worked out with government and owner, the National Insurance Scheme.
Sattaur also told Stabroek News that works are ongoing to bring the building up to the necessary preparedness. The GRA had hired a consultancy firm at a cost of $4.5 million under a competitive bidding process to prepare the building for occupancy.
In May this year, Cabinet Secretary Dr Roger Luncheon announced that Cabinet had granted its no objection to a $227.1M contract to complete and modify the building so that it could be occupied by the GRA.
Sattaur had earlier noted that the cost of leasing the building should not exceed what it would have cost to rent all the buildings that the GRA presently occupies. Luncheon had said that the GRA would have been paying a monthly rental of $10 million but at a later press conference he stated he had made an error and that the rental figure had not yet been settled.
The departments to be housed in the Camp Street building are the Customs and Trade Administration, now on Main Street; the Licence Revenue Division, now on Princes and Smyth streets; the Value Added Tax (VAT) and Income Tax Divisions, now on Charlotte Street; and the Human Resources and Finance Division and the GRA Secretariat, which are now both located on Lamaha Street.
The NIS acquired the Clico building at a cost of $600 million as part of the liquidation of Clico’s assets.
The GRA was to have occupied the new government complex at the corner of High and Princes streets. However, this plan was put on hold because of the delays in finishing that building. Luncheon at a press conference had said that the reason the building has not been completed and outfitted is because this would be determined by the occupant and that agency’s intended use of the building.
A possible occupant is the Guyana Geology and Mines Commission which at present is operating in an overcrowded environment. However, Dr. Luncheon said that discussions are ongoing with a number of potential occupants of the building.
